Application of High-Speed Infrared Imaging to Study Transient Joule Heating in Station Class Zinc Oxide Surge Arresters

Technical Report · Mon Mar 15 04:00:00 EST 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/940299· OSTI ID:940299

Dinwiddie, R. B.; Wang, H.; Johnnerfelt, B.

Zinc Oxide based surge arresters are widely used to safeguard and improve reliability of the electrical power delivering and transmission systems. The primary application of surge arresters is to protect valuable components such as transformers from lightning strikes and switching transients in the transmission lines. Metal-oxide-varistor blocks (MOV, e.g. ZnO) are used in surge arrester assemblies. ORNL has developed an advanced infrared imaging technique to monitor the joule heating during transient heating of small varistors. In a recent short-term R&D effort, researchers from ABB and ORNL have expanded the use of IR imaging to larger station-class arrester blocks. An on-site visit to the ABB facility demonstrated that the use of IR imaging is not only feasible but also has the potential to improve arrester quality and reliability. The ASEA Brown Bower (ABB) Power and Technology & Development Company located at Greensburg PA having benefited from collaborative R&D cooperation with ORNL. ABB has decided a follow-on CRADA project is very important. While the previous efforts to study surge arresters included broader studies of IR imaging and computer modeling, ABB has recognized the potential of IR imaging, decided to focus on this particular area. ABB plans to use this technique to systematically study the possible defects in the arrester fabrication process. ORNL will improve the real-time monitoring capability and provide analysis of the infrared images. More importantly, the IR images will help us understand transient heating in a ceramic material from the scientific standpoint. With the improved IR imaging ABB and ORNL will employ the IR system to visualize manufacturing defects that could not be detected otherwise. The proposed on-site tests at ABB Power Technology & Development processing facility will identify the defects and also allow quick adjustments to be made since the resulting products can be inspected immediately. ABB matched the DOE $50K funding with $50K funds-in to ORNL. ABB also provided about $75K in-kind effort for on-site testing, and R&D to improve the fabrication process.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 940299
• Report Number(s): ORNL02-0654
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE